Colonel Sanders
The founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Harland Sanders, did not earn his title “Colonel” in the military, though he did serve. In 1906, Sanders lied about his age to enlist in the Army at fifteen and he was honorably discharged after a few months. More than two decades later, Sanders moved to Kentucky and opened a restaurant that became so popular that Governor Ruby Lafoon made him an honorary Kentucky colonel for his contribution to state cuisine. Fourteen years later, Sanders was re-commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel and began using the honorific title. Colonel Sanders also began wearing his signature white suit, black string tie, and goatee—an image that can still be found on a bucket of KFC chicken.

In the US Navy, the commander of a vessel is referred to as the Captain, regardless of actual rank. In WWII, Lt. Commanders and Commanders were frequently Captains of submarines, destroyers, and other smaller vessels. PT Boat Captains were usually Lieutenants.

As others have pointed out "Captain" is a title, not just a rank and any rank can be the captain of a vessel. I've even see a LT JG as the captain of an RPB.

This is the garbage that we see when people with no concept of military service start commenting on such. As is the case with most journalists, they have no idea what they are writing about most of the time and it usually shows in the news articles published these days.

The commanding officer of a naval vessel is referred to as "Captain," even if his rank is not "Captain." For instance, a navy destroyer or submarine might actually be commanded by a "Lieutenant Commander," "Commander," or a full "Captain." His crew would still call him "Captain," or maybe "Skipper," if they're so laid back as to allow it.

Crunch is in command of the Guppy, so he's the Captain of that ship, even though his naval rank is clearly Commander.

The biggest and most prolific case of fraud perpetuated on the US public is by Microsoft. They hired the US military to tap into nearly every computer made after 1985. It is the biggest case of corporate espionage conducted on the US public in the history of Earth. I know you have encountered the case yourself as I have a dozen times. You can't get around it and it even infiltrates Linux and Apple systems. You know it when it tells you that a man named General Failure has encountered problems reading drive C:. Who the hell is this General Failure and why the hell does he need to be looking at my drive c: ?

That he commands a vessel prefixed "SS", (Steamship), shows right away he is not a naval officer. Naval vessels are prefixed USS (United States Ship). And longstanding tradition is the vessel's master is called "Captain", regardless of whatever rank or title he would hold otherwise.

Similarly, in much of the South it was - and perhaps still is - common practice to refer to distinguished citizens by military titles. Thus, during the Scopes Trial, residents of Dayton were prone to address the lawyers as "Colonel Bryan" and "Captain Darrow." Bryan may have been otherwise entitled to this because of his Spanish-American War service, but Darrow certainly never claimed a military title.

This whole story is wrong. Captain Crunch, is a real Captain. Just because he is a Commander by rank, doesn't mean he can't hold the title of Captain. When I was in the Navy, the Captain of my submarine was actually a Commander by rank. He held the title of Captain, though. Captain Crunch is the real deal.

@dep21 Yeah, but it is not original. I have General Mills as a google news search and I have seen this story at least ten times in the past week. Mostly by bloggers, I can't believe Time would run with it.

Wow- A lead story featuring the recent discovery of the discrepancy between the rank & the uniform of a cartoon character on a box of kids' cereal. I've heard of slow news week, but this is ridiculous!